Adventure on the way to Kathmandu – III

It was 11 AM and we started the journey again. I had more confidence in this road than before, evident as we started enjoying the nature and the view. We climbed the next hill and down with much ease. With no vehicle in front, I had to only keep up the pace with the climb and to keep a watch on the incoming vehicles in the blind curves. Quite a success, I would say as we were conquering the Himalayas. But unlike my 20s, I was more composed with the confidence. I was conscious about the ill effects of being overconfident which can end you in disastrous situations leaving irreparable dent in life although there are huge learnings from such events, it is usually be preventive than corrective.

Now, that we were moving towards the next hill, the quality of the roads got deteriorating and patched with stone fillings wherever there was a huge crater (I cannot say pothole considering the size of the road breaks). It is quite usual that there is no possibility to get the perfect grip in such roads and when it is level road, it is not a concern since the gravity does not play against you. However, in Himalayan steeps, such roads can be definitely challenging for the most experienced of the drivers. The length of the steep roads were also more in some of the stretches and it was evident that there were earlier landslides, which were cleared for the vehicles. The SUMOs now have started slowing down and the black smoke was seen more often when the pushed the vehicle in the lower gears.

After winning the first hills, we were ready for any challenge that could be posed. Now that victory has been a routine, the confidence can get you to scale more heights but the challenge could also be levelled up. I was going to feel the Level up in any video game now, which barely I could understand. To start with, it started drizzling and Amit started murmuring that rain could toughen our climb. We reached the next hill and moving slowly. The SUMO ahead is no more visible and the ones behind were quite away given the higher speed which we had maintained to quickly move up the steeps. We reached a spot where there was a steep run required and in normal circumstances, it could have been easy to scale with no vehicles upfront and we can move with speed and reach the top of the steep. However, in this case we cannot move fast since there was a vehicle (Maruti Suzuki Alto) that had stopped at the top (in the picture below) in the middle of the road. I was aware that if we stop in this steep, with the stones, there is a possibility that the vehicle could start sliding without the possible grip but fortunately, it did not slide since I could get a small patch of mud between the stones. Amit was quick enough to jump out the vehicle and put some stones behind the wheels to arrest any future haphazard movement of the vehicle sliding down. I had not left any space for the vehicles to pass and we need to quickly move forward.

As I was thinking, Amit ran to the Alto and helped the Alto to move forward. There were 4 more adults who got the Alto moving forward and escape the steep. The Alto had reached the top most point of the steep and was comfortably to the side. As I could see some space on the side of the Alto, I started accelerating the Terrano and fly down the paths between the stones. Quick to move and struggle intermittently, I reached the top, with the speed took the right curve and parked to the side to allow Amit to get in. Now there was no drizzling and there was sun again. Nature was just challenging us for the moment. I had realized that there are always people around these hills ready to help. It is clear that when Nature gets more and more challenging, people live in harmony.

After the struggle, Nature was welcoming with the beautiful sceneries and the chill weather. I remembered from my school that Himalayan range in layered and the lower range in Hilly and the grow as we move north of the Range. Never believed that I would experience this as close as now. When we started from Hetauda, Amit mentioned that as we climb the first hill, the second looks bigger and keeps climbing in height. This was evident quite clear, as we climbed the first hill, the second was more steep and higher and so on. Now, that we were climbing down another hill, it was comfortable to climb down. At this height, we could experience the chill weather. To enjoy the weather and the nature, we made another stop.

Adventure on the way to Kathmandu – II

As we were about to reach the diversion point where we need to start the road to Pharping, there were many TATA SUMO vehicles jumping all (at more than the recommended speeds) around the small curves and it was obvious that these vehicles were loaded with passengers (the front wheels were anytime going to miss the gravity hold, what we could say a “wheeling”). I could certainly understand the power of the TATA SUMOs, thanks to the taxi drivers in the Bangalore traffic who can chop off your rear view mirrors if you don’t watch for them. But these drivers in Nepal, were testing the toughness of the SUMO to a different extreme and Amit mentioned that these vehicles carry passengers from and to Kathmandu on a daily basis with atleast 10 passengers.

As I was chasing one of the SUMOs and pushing the capabilities of the front wheel drive Terrano, we crossed many small villages and some narrow roads with curves. As we reached the check point to enter the registry with the vehicle permit and the vehicle registration number, I could see that there was this young man just climb on to the top of one of the SUMOs. First, I was wondering if this energetic young man is going to lift some luggage to the top of the vehicle but then he was going to travel sitting on the vehicle. Wow.. It is possible to ride over the vehicle in a plain terrain wherein the vehicle has no chance of bouncing left to right, when taking those corners. But I had to contradict my thoughts and rewrite the memory that this is also possible. Don’t know how many of my prejudices would get erased and rewritten before I reach Kathmandu.

As the vehicle was swaying in the curves, the man on the top was solid stuck to the roof. Was able to grasp a photo of the same (above). I was quite well able to hold to the speeding SUMOs and was lucky to have the power in my vehicle. Especially the quicker response from the vehicle maneuvering helped in progressing the curves and the steeps much faster but then we reached a point where our vehicle was challenged.

The roads were tarred and was able to provide the necessary hold for the tires. Better with no moist on the roads, which could have made the vehicle slip without the necessary grip and given the lesser power of the 2-wheel drive, we would have struggled, worst case could have ended with a mishap if the situations were not favorable. Certainly, I was not expecting these steeper roads. Only that I was enjoying the chase, the adrenaline has kept me going without noticing the hilly steeps that we were conquering. Worst case, if there had been a slower traffic, I would have struggled to keep up with the pace and would have got stuck on the road. Thanks to the rushing SUMO ahead.

Coming back to the road, as we were climbing the second hill, the SUMO got slower and slower, in some places he had to get to the first gear to get the torque required to pull the weight. His lowering of speeds, made us to lower our speeds and subsequently there was a point where the momentum was not enough to pull us up. Our 2 wheel drive started giving up. It was at this point that the engine suddenly stopped. I pulled the hand brakes and released the clutch, the vehicle had come to stand still now. There was a queue of atleast 3 vehicles behind us, since we were between the SUMOs and as they were all bumper to bumper and standing in a slope, there was no chance for the SUMOs behind to get ahead. As I put my hands outside and asked them to pass us, I could witness the torture in the eyes of the driver behind me. With my T-shirt sticking to the seat, I could realize that moment that I was sweating even when the weather was soothingly chilly. I turned to Amit and asked, “Do you want to drive?” (I have been sticking to the driver seat from Bangalore for almost 2300+ kms and this hill had to take me down), and Amit gave me an unusual reply “This is only a warm up, we have to cover still”, then he delivered with a navigator’s support of some step by step instruction to push the accelerator and then release the hand brakes slowly. Finally, after couple of trials, the vehicle climbed with a stutter. By then one of the vehicle from behind had managed to pass by and I had enough space in case if the vehicle had slipped a few inches behind.

Now that we crossed the second hill, we started climbing down the second hill and I desperately needed a stop. We stopped at this beautiful greenery place after a village. Click from the location below. Few more miles to reach Kathmandu, I was already feeling the adventure in the drive.

Adventure on the way to Kathmandu – I

As we woke to a cold morning, it was decided by the forces that govern that we will be taking the less than 90 kms road to Kathmandu through Pharping. As Amit had explained earlier, my thoughts had made me think of this road as a tough road with some hair pin bends (as the ones in Nilgris) and some steep curves. Curves and Hair pin bends are not new to me, my experience of driving different continents had brought in the confidence to take any drive without much difficulty theoretically. But there was for sure a grey area which was clearly indicated by the puzzled looks of Amit because he was always saying Road 2 through Palung / Daman was the one which we were taking for all these months of planning and all of a sudden he was convinced that we will take this Road 3 through Pharping.

Just to keep you guys get back to your calculators, Road 2 to Kathmandu is around 30 kms longer than Road 3. That’s ok and the time duration is around 2 hours more. What does Google say ? Does this mean Road 3 is an easier route ? What is the hidden secret ? Remember guys, Google does not take road condition as a parameter in its Transfer Function. OOPS…

The Hotel served us with Complimentary breakfast which was good enough. The weather was chilly with drizzling. I was back at the Steering of the Terrano at the basement parking and was looking at the steep climb to the ground level. Certainly, that was not a normal basement to ground exit. In all of the Bangalore malls, I haven’t seen such a short & steep climb up a floor for cars. Since the entry and exit were the same to the basement parking, I asked Amit to look for any incoming vehicles so that I am not stuck right in the middle of the climb. Amit would have thought, what a man !!! But I was for sure thinking of how I am going to take the vehicle out of the basement. Finally, I was clear that I am going to keep the momentum to push my front wheel drive out of this hole. Glancing at the curve and steep from the basement, I accelerated in that parking lot and made a sharp left to the steep curve and reached the smooth rocky patch of the ground floor exit. Wow, what an achievement !!! Great job buddy ! I hadn’t thought or experienced a situation wherein the vehicle slows down completely in the middle of the steep climb… Only that if there is such a long and steep climb.

Now back on the road, we were crossing the last stretch of straight and smooth roads for the next 7 days to come. Nice tar road with 2 way traffic, good weather was relaxing start for the day. The AC switched OFF, we were enjoying the fresh breeze. We were crossing Hetauda’s outskirts and I could notice that there were kids walking to schools all along the side of the road. Then as I was questioning Amit about the education in Nepal and was surprised to hear that Nepal parents give important to the Primary education and although there is not a good transport that is available for the kids going to school, parents encourage the kids to walk to the nearby schools even though it is several kilometers of distance.

As we reached the banks of the Trishuli River, I could see that the water force was revealing that we are right at the bottom of the first hill where we need to start the climb. I was always under the misunderstanding that Kathmandu is on the hill and we need to climb the hill. I also believe that some of you readers would also assume the same. Just to clarify, Kathmandu is a valley and we will have climb up and down some of the hills, which we standing in front of us.

  

               

The first surprise in Nepal – Drive to Hetauda

After dinner, still me on the driving seat, we started the drive towards Hetauda. It will be a short one-hour drive to Hetauda and we were at the Rim of the Himalayan ranges already moving from the Terai plains to Ghat sections. The roads were broad enough for a comfortable drive and very similar to the stretches towards Madikeri in Western Ghats.

I was due for the first surprise of my trip. There have been many number of highways, national, state, district, village, pukka, kutcha roads I have driven and it is quite usual to get a mix of driving experience. However, the mix has been always biased with more arrogant drivers (arrogance by not following the rules and the sense) than the ones who follow rules. It is usual, we move to a high power head light than the vehicle stock ones only to counter this road arrogance. We never get a driver (especially the Truckers) who shifts to a lower head beam when you are head on with a lower vehicle and it hits you more. Unfortunately, the Indian drivers are manufactured with these defects because we are warranted with these behaviors all our lives. With all this experience, do anyone of us believe that we will be the drivers who follow the rules. We have been pushed to leave the high beam with the high power head lamps adjusted on one side to point not on the road but to hit the high vehicles on the windshield. So, my imagination of night driving in Nepal was also of the same but things were completely different.

The first truck, I had to overtake on that night changed my thought process of this small nation hosting the biggest ranges of the world. It is surprising that only with the driving behavior that is evident on the road; one can not only derive the cultural difference but also conveniently judge the goodness in people. Once I had conveyed my thought to overtake the truck by pushing the high beam on the headlights, within 2 seconds, I got to see the right indicator blinking on the truck. I had to come out of the surprise that the Indicator was in working condition in a truck to realize that there was a closed communication with another driver on the road. Usually, in India we experience lot of communication, some with actions and some with the local slang, some with loud honking, some more annoying the other. Nevertheless, this communication what I was experiencing is completely different but not new (similar to US, Europe). So, then we crossed this first truck and then I turned to Amit, started understanding the discipline on road and the next vehicle coming opposite had lowered the head beam at a distance when I could barely see the dots of lights. When the other vehicle just crossed me, he flickered the head light once to ensure that his way was clear of any slow moving traffic. Wow, this is really the biggest surprise for my whole trip and I started visualizing the people and their discipline on roads.

It is somewhat fascinating when you as a whole get judgmental (for good in this case), when the experience is good. 

Very quickly, I realized that I should respect the fellow drivers on the road, which I never forgot until I entered India again. For the next 10 days, I shall be experiencing a change in driving habits, Keep to the left, wait for indication from the ahead vehicle before overtaking and the lower beam.

The short and good drive ended at Hetauda at a place surrounded by shopping complexes, which were closed for the day. Very early for the shops to be closed it was just 8 PM wherein usually in Bangalore; I would be struggling to pass the 2 ecospace flyovers and then the Sarjapur junction flyover. This place was already peaceful at 8 PM, but not a chilly winter Bangalore evening weather but a cool weather. Amit had enquired about a hotel and we quickly got into one of the complexes. The security diverted our vehicle into a basement parking which was deeply caved into the ground. After parking the vehicle, we booked a room and were quick to sleep dreaming about the next day drive. Lot of adventures and surprises ahead, I was still digesting the mix of culture first at the Yathayat office and then the dinner, to end with the Road and its drivers.

Birgunj (Nepal Border) to Kathmandu - Being the Invincibles :)

As Amit was speaking Nepalese to the authorities at the border, the person at the other side of the table was checking the form and authorizing with the seal. This piece of paper with the vehicle registration and our names will allow us and the vehicle to get into Nepal. Apart from this permit, we will have to still get the papers from the Birgunj Yathayat (Transport department) office. We were into the marshy roads of Birgunj and started searching the Yathayat. We will have to pay the road tax for the given period of Travel and need to get the vehicle permit. We enquired some persons in Blue uniform to get to the Yathayat office and later I understood from Amit that those were the Nepal Police. I will have to remember this

            

I had always imagined Nepal’s geography and Climate to be hilly and cold. However, this was not the fact, Nepal as a country is protected by Himalayas in the North and the whole country runs parallel to the Himalayas. That means the northern part of Nepal is covered with the Himalayan range hosting the great Mount Everest. Did I mention ever that we have planned the EBC (Everest Base Camp) Trek? Yes, we were going to land at Lukla, which is the most dangerous airport in the world. From Kathmandu to Lukla, we were going to take a short flight and from Lukla we had planned to trek to Namache Bazaar and then to Everest Base Camp. All our trekking bags were ready at the back of the vehicle.

            

Now coming back to present, the marshy bad roads filled with trucks moving towards Hetauda be the Tribhuvan Highway named after one of the modern times King of Nepal. After missing a left turn, we took a U-turn in a junction and finally reached a street filled with Water because of the heavy rains the same morning. I had always heard of Nepal as the most friendly nation to India but the bad roads and the water stagnated streets, got me a feeling that was closer to the realities of India except for India had better National Highway infrastructure. Thanks to the government headed by Mr. Vajpayee. I had missed the most important point here which is more realistic to compare than the ones which I mentioned, how did I miss this ? It’s the people !!! When I say Nepalese people, most of you will picturize the Hindi speaking Mongolian Nepalese people (very honest and meticulous) whom you would have hired as security and domestic help back in your urban dwellings. However, I could only see a handful of the Mongolian Nepalese after I had entered Nepal. The majority ones were Indians, sorry Nepalese resembling Indians. Welcome to the Terai region of Nepal (southern part of the Nepal). Most of the Terai people are Indians migrated years back.

            

We parked the vehicle outside the Yathayat office and walked inside the gate. There were few officials sitting inside a room filled few government with files. The whole campus was closer to my thought of any small town RTO office in India. Nowadays, most of the RTO offices in India are reconstructed and computerized, but this office in Birgunj was yet to get the Digital blessing. Amit approached an official who mentioned that it is not possible to get the permits the same evening since it was close to the end of office timings. The time was around 5:15 pm. As I had understood from the mannerism of the official, that with some handling, we will be able to get the permit, Amit was already on the job negotiating and finally we got the permit papers for 10 days including permits for Kathmandu, Pokhra, Hetauda etc etc. This permit was more than enough for us to complete our journey in and out of Nepal.

            

We started driving through the Tribhuvan Highway towards Hetauda and it was getting dark. After the experience of the permit papers, I was getting ready for a more like Indian scenario in all my experiences but Amit sharing some pointers, which could become surprises for me and completely away from the Indian way. During the sunset, we crossed the Terai region of the Highway. After the day long drive and the hectic traffic in Raxaul had made us tired. We had to refuel with some good food and from now and for the next 10 days in Nepal, I will have to land into any restaurant that Amit will opt. I would not doubt his choices given the couple of years, we worked together and we knew each other.

            

We stopped at the side of the Highway with a row of restaurants for Dinner It was still 6:30 pm and the stove was still getting hot in all these restaurants. Highway restaurants are owned by families, their residences built on the first and second floor of the restaurants. After having good rotis, parathas in the last 2 days driving across North of India, I was expecting Amit to get me some rotis and Dal (already missing Rice but used to the Chappatis, Rotis). I was hearing the first surprise when Amit told me that we would only have Rice in Nepal (hearing of the great Tamil King Rajendra Chozhan, who travelled all across the Sub-continent to hoist the Tiger Chozhan dynasty flag on Himalayas). This was the first surprise, which challenged my prejudices. Rice with curry is the dinner for Today. Hungry and still waiting to taste the food, Amit was again talking Nepalese but the context was understood as I watched the owner cooking Chicken curry. Amit will not miss the Chicken in the order. J

Since it had rained for the past few days in Bihar, the air humidity caused the hindrance to the airflow through the AC ducts because of the condensation on the evaporator pipes. Ok, let’s not get too technical about it. We had to switch OFF the AC to leave the condensation to clear off frequently.

               

 

As we entered deep into Bihar and got off the NH27, the state highway roads got worse by the kilometer and it was getting worse to worst. You could very well understand the state of the roads in the pictures. Our goal set to cross the international border into Nepal before sunset pushed us to skip our lunch and with the bad roads, the time was running fast but we moved slow. The last stretch to the Border was the worst road we encounter in whole of our trip. All this because of the detour we took to enter Nepal through Raxaul (Bihar) and not through Sanauli (UP).

As we were just 11 km to the border to exit India and enter Nepal, we did not know that these 11 kms is going to take us 3 hours to cross. It was around 2:30 pm we were just 11 kms away from the border but between the bad roads and the trucks that were moving towards the border. We did not have place to move and cross these trucks, which were stagnant. The police were stopping these trucks and we were witnessing arguments between the truck drivers and the cops.

Finally, someone gave us an idea to get into the field nearby and then bypass the traffic on the main road. In addition, we were able to move forward but this idea was useful in some places but not everywhere given the marshy roadside fields where we did not want to take any risk of being stuck with our 2-wheel drive.

As we reached the border, there was no checking at the Indian check post. We crossed the Indian check post and entered the no man’s land where there was no traffic with all Trucks left behind, it was close to 5 PM.

               

Now we were into Nepal with a sigh of relief that we crossed the Border into Nepal, I don’t know if Amit had been thinking of the mountain adventure challenge ahead but I was feeling accomplished that most of the trip is completed. Standing in Nepal, as waiting for the permit papers to be ready in that humid evening, I was “not” able realize the challenge or the courage that we were going to raise in the following day to finish the most difficult memorable part of the drive.

Gorakhpur, UP to Raxaul, Bihar:

As we crossed, Gorakhpur city, we witnessed the non-Auto Rickshaws which depicted the existence of the one of the oldest modes of transportation in India. As any other tier 2 cities in india, Gorakhpur was flooded with 2 wheelers. Atleast 1 in 5 bikes had gas cylinders tied to the rear seat. Now don’t assume that Gorakhpur has Gas powered 2 wheelers, it is only that the gas cylinders are transported. Unlike, the gas cylinder delivery that happens in the South India, Gorakhpur people had to pick their cylinders from the agency because most of the houses don’t have detailed addresses for the delivery man to deliver the gas cylinders. 2 out of 5 bikes was carrying an entire family, another typical tier 2 city middle class mode of transportation. Now that we had reached the interiors of UP, the response from the bike riders had slightly changed from MP, only that they did not respond to any horn. The loud horn of my vehicle only created the Noise pollution but the real intent of the honking was not met.

We were driving into Bihar through the NH27 and were following the Google maps since it always guided us through the route with shortest time to reach. As we were inside Bihar, the Google maps pushed us to take a diversion into an internal road. As we took the road diverting from the NH27, few meters ahead the road got narrow but well tarred running between fertile agricultural lands.

We did not realize that we had lost until we reached a point where a few meters ahead was a Pond but google was still showing a road. My vehicle was not a Hovercraft and hence we could not swim across the pond to reach the other side, the option was only to take the right side road to ensure that we are in the right direction.

After few seconds, Google maps rerouted with a new route now showing that we are in the correct way. After few minutes driving ahead, still following google maps, we entered a small-unpaved street. As we still believed and moved ahead in the road, we entered a gate of a house, which had few goats and buffaloes. We managed to turn around within the same place without anyone noticing us and as we turned around the SUV, the goats got panicky. We did not have any intentions of picking the Goats J

We did realize that Bihar village roads were not recorded appropriately in Google, that means someone has just drawn roads on paper and waited for some driver to experiment. We were victims of this Google experiment and decided to forget the directions provided by Google and decided to drive in the direction of the NH27. How did we know the direction of NH27 ? Google maps showed us the direction in which we were moving and the direction of NH27. It was like we were driving off road for Google. After few enquiries (thanks to my Hindi skills), we escaped few roadside thorns and finally reached the Highway and decided to stay on the Highway whatever time it takes.